Elena’s breath caught in her throat as his words sank in. Married? To Simon? No. No way in hell. Not in this fucking lifetime. Not after what he had done. Not after… “No,” she whispered, pulling her hand away from his grasp as if the ring burned her skin. “You’re lying. You can’t just marry someone without their consent!” she said in disbelief. Simon grinned, though this time, his smirk was nowhere near a smile. There was a seriousness on his face that hadn’t been there before. He didn’t move an inch when she put space between them. “Do you know who I am, Elena?” he asked her, though it seemed like he was having a conversation with himself. Cocky bastard. “I’m not bound by the same rules as others, darling. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, and however I want.” She swallowed hard at the implication of those words. But what he said only acted like gasoline on her rage. She shook her head, as if suddenly overwhelmed, as if facing something completely beyond her understa

Despite the sun being crazy hot, she walked down the steps and headed down the pebbled path. Her feet were bare, but she didn’t really feel the stones underneath her soles.The front lawn of the beach house was a garden, with roses and orchids and so many other plants and flowers that Elena didn’t know the name for, not all of them, not yet at least.Her mind was already too cloudy and dark and all she could feel was a sort of dull, numbing pain spreading throughout her body.She didn’t know for how long she walked, or how far. It was only when she heard the honk of a car, she stopped and turned to glance over her shoulder. She noticed that she had walked way past the gardens, way past the hedges and the manicured bushes.She looked down and realized she was standing on a cemented road of sorts, stretched from the beach house to far away, leading somewhere she did not know of.A black Mercedes rolled towards her at a very slow pace. Elena watched as it got closer, and closer, and then

Elena glared at her reflection in the mirror and hated that the dress picked by the fucking Walsh was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.The dress was made of white satin, and it felt so light and soft against her skin that she almost felt as if she wasn’t wearing anything at all. But she was, and it looked gorgeous with its boned corset and silk lining, its diagonal front split skirt, and its asymmetrical strap.Elena sighed and pushed some loose hair out of her face.Given the forced nature of the task at hand, Elena obviously had no plans to do anything that remotely pleased him. If it were up to her, she would have grabbed a pair of shorts and a shirt and called it a day. But it was his demand that she get ready and take her time with it. And even though she had no interest in sitting through the entire torture, Simon had made sure to send the maids to drag her out of bed and make her dance to their tune.For now, she had no choice but to do as he wished, mostly because sh

Once they reached the tent, she could feel her heart in her throat, her whole body feeling a little breathless at what she was about to enter. The whole thing was starting to feel so real, as if this man next to her truly was the husband who was taking her out on their first date, or the second one if she was to think about all the time they had spent together in the past.He held the flap open for her. “After you, my darling,” he said as his lips stretched wider.Elena stared at him, almost too tempted to roll her eyes, but the warmth and the playfulness in his eyes did things to her insides that were far more…wrong.She swallowed before she took a deep breath and walked in.But then, she stopped again.A million words tried to form in her head but somehow they all disappeared in a matter of seconds and her eyes stung with the most unfamiliar of feelings, her whole body frozen in place.Inside the tent, the floor was covered by a thick mat of rose petals and there was a circular table

Simon was still.But Elena was breathing hard and the sound of her heart beating was loud against her own ears. She felt him move but she couldn’t take her eyes away from his face as she watched his fingers rub the reddened area on his cheek, where her palm had just met with his skin.It felt good to have some satisfaction but then she was filled with another feeling.Dread.He was looking at her as if he had murder in mind.Something inside her told her to run, to get away from him before something worse happened.But She couldn’t. Her feet were as if nailed to the sand, sunk so deep she couldn’t get them out, not in time, at least.She opened her mouth to say something, not really sure what she could possibly say to him to calm the storm in his eyes. But before she could even blink, he grabbed her by the nape and yanked her towards him, his lips slamming down on hers in a kiss so harsh and filled with anger that she couldn’t find a way out of it, no matter how hard she tried.His arm